Traineeships needed now, but education must improve

10th January 2013

Commenting on the proposals to launch a national traineeship programme published by the government today, Dr Adam Marshall, Director of Policy at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said: -Traineeships could help the large number of young people who have left education in recent years without the basic skills needed to get into a skilled job or an apprenticeship.

A range of pre-apprenticeship schemes already exist, so any national scheme must be tailored to suit the needs of local economies and different sectors. -Learning from the successes of existing schemes, including those run by Chambers of Commerce in a number of areas, traineeships must focus on meeting the real-world standards set by business. A national traineeship scheme will only boost access to jobs or apprenticeships if they produce work-ready candidates. -We must underline that traineeships and other such schemes are only a stop-gap for a functioning education system. Unless basic work skills are taught and learned from primary school onwards, both in the classroom and at home, we will forever be remediating the mistakes of the past and missing out on economic growth.